Monday, February 1, 2016

European artifacts, 15th century

Piero di Cosimo
The Visitation, with St Nicholas and St Anthony Abbot
ca. 1489-90
National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

One by one these paintings and drawings made in Europe before 1500 accumulated in the running file of stimulating images that contingency places in my path. This is not a period that I pursue, but nor do I avoid the occasional piece of particular allure. Now they are brought together here from their faraway home in the 1400s. It was during this century that the old settled world of faith and the new world of observation and inquiry came to coexist as equals.

Carlo Braccesco
Annunciation triptych
1490s
Louvre

Maso Finiguerra
Torso
15th century
drawing
Morgan Library

Francesco Francia
Ancient scene of Sacrifice
15th century
drawing
Morgan Library

Andrea Mantegna
Christ descending into Limbo
ca. 1475-80
engraving
Victoria & Albert Museum

Curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum stress the unorthodox presentation of the central figure in the Mantegna engraving above. There are, they say, extremely few images in the entire history of Christian art that display Christ with his back turned toward the viewer. Mantegna uses this shocking disposition to stress the enormity of Christ's heroic degradation as he steps toward the descent into Limbo.

Andrea Mantegna
Study for the Removal of the Body of St. Christopher
15th century
drawing
Morgan Library

Italian School
Man wearing a cap
15th century
drawing
Morgan Library

Italian School
Head of a monk
15th century
drawing
Morgan Library

Benozzo Gozzoli
Saints Nicholas of Tolentino, Roch, Sebastian and Bernardino of Siena, with Kneeling Donors
1481
Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Silver Reliquary of St. Sebastian
1497
Victoria & Albert Museum

The base of the reliquary above contains fragments of wood wrapped in silk. Curators speculate that these were probably believed to be shards of the arrows that pierced the saint.

Albrecht Dürer
Self-portrait
1493
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art


Bicci di Lorenzo
St. Nicholas providing dowries for poor young women
1433-35
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marco Zoppo
Man carrying bundle
15th century
drawing
Morgan Library

Giovanni Agostino da Lodi
Profile of youth 
15th century
drawing
Morgan Library